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THEIR handshakes were firm, their smiles broad and while the greeting lasted just 15 seconds there was clearly no love lost between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin as they met ahead of a showdown on the Syrian crisis.

As host of the G20 summit, the Russian President greeted all the guests individually at the former imperial Constantine Palace with the quickest handshake reserved for his US counterpart. The longest, of at least a minute, was awkwardly had with Australia’s representative Foreign Minister Bob Carr.

The G20 is usually a convivial affair with talk about global economics and aid for developing nations, spiced with live entertainment and fine dining.

But this year’s gathering has taken on a hostile feel with the focus on the Syrian crisis and clear divisions between nations on what action if any to take on the Assad regime in Syria and its chemical attack on its citizens.

Mr Putin and China’s delegation immediately questioned the rationale behind US moves for a military strike on sites in Syria suspected of potentially delivering chemical bombings.

"Military action would have a negative impact on the global economy, especially on the oil price - it will cause a hike in the oil price," Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said.

EU leaders also declared there was "no military solution" in the Syrian conflict and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also ruled out her country’s backing of any US-led military action.

So far only France and Australia have declared support for an attack, Australia only in principle with no commitment of any military resources.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi are also currently in St Petersburg to push for a diplomatic solution over a military one. The announcement of their appearance at the summit added to the tension of the forum.

"While the world is focused on concerns about the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria we must push even harder for the International Conference on Syria to take place in Geneva," the spokesman quoted Ban as saying

British Prime Minister David Cameron meanwhile said he had further evidence of the use of chemical weapons on Syria from soil and cloth samples.

"We have just been looking at some samples taken from Damascus in the Porton Down laboratory in Britain which further shows the use of chemical weapons in that Damascus suburb," Mr Cameron said.

Mr Carr also said Australia’s intelligence agencies had made a similar conclusion from raw data and materials they had analysed.

There apparently remains no proof as to whom used the weapons although Britain, the US and France said it was clear it came from government held areas and only the government’s forces had the capability to launch the attack on August 21 that killed more than 1400 people including 400 children.

All the G20 nations are to meet later today in a series of closed-door meetings to attempt to resolve the Syrian impasse. The issue reportedly also dominated a dinner overnight for the G20 leaders with Mr Obama at pains to reinforce that the use of chemical warfare could not be allowed to go with no response. He and Mr Putin are expected to hold private talks on the issue; the outcome of which is expected to be announced at the end of the summit Friday night local time.

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